Nobody's Toys
by Amles80
Summary: People from Angela's past bear a grudge against her and think it's payback time; she'll suffer through her grandchildren. Will Claire do whatever it takes to save her family?


**Title:** Nobody's Toys**  
Fandom:** Heroes**  
Characters/Pairings:** Angela Petrelli, Heidi Petrelli, Claire Bennet, Max, Ally and Steve (original characters), Monty and Simon Petrelli (implied past Angela/Heidi)**  
Rating:** T**  
Summary:** Many years ago, a small group of individuals managed to get away before the Company got a chance to "tag and bag" them – but they bear a grudge against Angela Petrelli and now it's payback time. But of course, Angela has a plan. The question is: Will Claire do whatever it takes to save her family?**  
Prompt:** one shot # 21 _If you know both yourself and your enemy, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss _at "heroes_contest", live journal**  
Word count:** 5 428**  
Warnings/spoilers:** Child abduction, a little violence, character death/none.

***

Angela Petrelli had one new message in her inbox. She didn't have to read it to know what it said.

She read it anyway.

She read the same words on the computer screen as she had read not long ago in her dream. She read about the demands, the instructions, the warnings. _We know that you know that the police can not be involved – and in case you were thinking about it, don't ask anyone else for advice, either. If you just follow the instructions, no one will get hurt._

"How dare they!" she said out loud, although no one was there to hear her. The anger flooded through her and made her almost shake in her chair at the desk when she thought about it: that they went after the weakest members of her family…

The phone rang, and she picked it up immediately.

"Oh thank god!" Heidi cried on the other end. "I was afraid I wasn't going to get hold of you, Angela, it's the boys, something terrible has happened and you've got to help me!"

The raw, naked despair in Heidi's voice cut through her, sharper than a samurai sword, and it took all her efforts to sound strong.

"I know. I will help you, calm down and tell me everything."

"Calm down!" Heidi's voice was shrill. "Angela, Simon and Monty have been kidnapped! They're gone, my babies, and I don't know where they are or who they're with and I don't know what to do, I tried to call Nathan but he didn't pick up, oh god, Angela…"

Heidi started sobbing, and Angela wanted nothing else than to take her in her arms and hold her tight and tell her that everything was going to be all right, but she couldn't. Heidi was too far away to be held, and Angela was in no position to make any promises. The only thing she could do at the moment was to try to stop her from being hysterical.

"Stop crying", she commanded with her sharpest voice, and Heidi obeyed with a small sound of hiccup, and drew a deep trembling breath. "I know you want to tear down heaven and earth", she continued sternly, "but this is not the time or place. Listen, you need to tell me everything. What happened? When did it happen?"

Heidi's voice was tearful and shaking, but she trusted Angela enough to do what she was told.

"I just left them for a little while this morning to go grocery shopping. They hate that, and I thought they're old enough to be alone for a while now. I swear, Angela, I locked the door, and I never could have thought that anyone would want to…"

Her voice became faint, and Angela encouraged her:

"I know, it's not your fault, Heidi, but tell me more…"

"Yes Angela, I came back home, and, and I saw that the door was opened – I mean, the lock was broken, and… and I can't really remember the next few minutes, it was the shock – I guess I feared the worst, I thought it was a burglary and I thought that Simon and Monty… but then when I saw that they were gone, I thought that they had run to a neighbour or something, and I started looking around… Then I realized that nothing, absolutely nothing, was missing except my boys. They had been playing in their room when I left, and their room was empty, and when I ran out to call for help, then I saw it…"

"You saw what?" Angela's heart went ice cold, and then it started racing; for the first time since all this started, she felt the room spinning around her, but she managed to focus and control the dizziness.

"Outside the front door", Heidi said, "just a couple of inches from the threshold… a shoe. Simon's shoe. It was there on the ground, all alone, as if he had dropped it while running – and I knew that someone had taken my boys. Someone who didn't care if they had their shoes on or not; it must have fell of Simon's foot…"

"Yes", Angela tried to interrupt, "I understand…"

"And then", Heidi went on, and the despair was back in her voice, "I went to the phone, but before I picked it up, someone called and, and it was _them_, it was a distorted voice and I couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman, but the person told me that they had my boys, and that they were safe but only for so long, and if I wanted them back alive I must call _you_ and you would know what to give them."

Heidi stopped to catch her breath after the long tirade, and the tone of her voice was a mixture of accusations and hope of being saved.

"I know what they want." Angela looked at her laptop with the disgusting little message of revenge and hatred. The anger was like a giant heat wave within her and she didn't know what to do with it right then. "I know what they want", she repeated and her voice trembled a little.

"What is it" Heidi asked, "is it money? Angela, if this is because of Nathan's… if this is some kind of dirty political – "

"No", Angela interrupted, "it's got nothing to do with Nathan. It's not something political. It's personal."

How dare they, she thought again, and she clenched her fists and felt her nails dig deep into the flesh of her palms. How dare they; go after Heidi and my grandchildren…

"But why? Who are they? How much money do they want?"

"They don't want money", Angela replied and had to force the words out of her mouth, "at least not from us. They want Claire."

"What?! You mean, in exchange of Nathan's sons, they want his daughter? Why, what for?"

"They want to use her."

"Angela!" Heidi exclaimed loudly on the other end of the phone.

"No, not like that." Angela closed her eyes and added silently: _I hope_. "I mean, she has got something they want."

Heidi was silent, and then she asked:

"Will she do it? I mean, is she going to give it to them, whatever it is, and save Simon and Monty?"

Angela looked at the photo on her desk, of Heidi, Nathan and their children. The boys were very small there, not much more than toddlers, and the parents were smiling, looking happy.

I can't see why Nathan was stupid enough to never really appreciate Heidi as much as I did, Angela thought.

"I am quite sure that she will", she said slowly, "they are her little brothers, and family is important to Claire. As it is to me. I really wish she didn't have to do it, though."

"Oh, Angela, so do I. She won't get hurt, will she?"

"No." Angela shook her head as if Heidi could see her. "No, Claire won't get hurt…"

The desperation was back in Heidi's voice when she moaned:

"But why is this happening? I don't understand. Who are these people? Where are my children?!"

Angela chose to only answer the last question, and for the first time her voice softened:

"I don't know where they are, dear. Not yet. Heidi, dearest… why did you have to go and live so far away?"

"You know why. Nathan and I just couldn't go on… and you know it was impossible…"

"I know. But I…" Angela hesitated, "I miss you, Heidi. I miss having you close to me."

"I miss you too, I guess", Heidi sighed.

"You guess?"

"Right now I only want my children back, Angela!"

"Of course you do. And you will get them back, I promise you; I want them back as much as you do. This shouldn't have happened to you… but it will be all right again, I promise. Look, we've got to stop talking now."

"But wait", Heidi protested, "what are we going to do? Are we really not going to call the police after all?"

"No", Angela said and tried to inspire confidence with her voice, "we are not. I know you're scared – why don't you call someone you can talk to… call Na… no, call Peter. And tell him I'll talk to him soon. You do trust me, don't you, Heidi?"

Heidi did trust Angela, and with that, they hung up.

Angela looked at the laptop; the screensaver hid the e-mail message from her eyes. She wanted to delete it, but of course she knew that that wouldn't help at all. She didn't lose any time. Before she started trembling with anger again, she called her granddaughter.

Claire sounded happy to hear from her, but after introducing herself, Angela didn't waste one single word on small talk; she immediately explained to Claire that Monty and Simon had been kidnapped and that Claire's cooperation was unfortunately demanded by the kidnappers.

"But why don't you call the police?" Claire asked, but immediately corrected herself. "So, they're people with abilities, right?"

"Yes, and I know them; I knew them long ago – and that is the source of this situation."

Angela told Claire everything. She told her about the time when they had all been young and the Company was new, before even Noah was involved with it. Not everything had been running smoothly in the beginning.

"You know", she said, "we tried to get people to see things from our point of view. We reasoned with them, often with success. But there have always been individuals who have wanted to go their own way …"

"Yeah, I know…"

"Now these four", Angela said, "were impossible to deal with from the start. You have encountered such people, too. They create their own laws, and that often means hurting other people…"

"So you lock them up", Claire said.

Yes, that was exactly what they did. Except when they got away, which was when they had to be killed. And Angela herself had ended the life of one of them.

The man she killed in self-defence was hardly more than a boy, but dangerous. And his mother's last word before she vanished into thin air was: _I'll be back one day, Angela…_

Angela had been young when that happened. Later, she too had painfully and repeatedly learned what it was like to loose a child – that day when Mohinder Suresh had brought the lifeless Peter to her in his taxi, she had for a moment thought that it was that woman who somehow was using Sylar to get her revenge. That had not been the case. Not until now – but the fact that she had learned to understand a mother's feelings did not mean that she had to accept the current situation – and she wasn't going to.

"The thing is", she explained to Claire, "three of them escaped us, and they formed their own criminal gang, like so many others try to do… and they managed to remain in hiding. For a long time, we didn't know what happened to them. We've always suspected that they were out there, doing God knows what to survive, but we never heard from them again. Until now."

"Now that they've got Simon and Monty", Claire said, her voice trembling with anger. "Why? Angela, why?"

"Apparently", Angela replied, "they have acquired a large fortune over the years, but now they've fallen out. One of them wants to keep it all to himself. The others want to take back what they feel is theirs. But they can't get it, because they can't get near him – he sets everything around him on fire. They can't walk through fire… but you can."

"Oh", Claire said, "so they want me to…"

"Exactly. There is of course no reason why you should do anything for such people, they have to find a way to force you. The couldn't kidnap you; you've got people to look after you – whether you like it or not, your dad won't let anything happen to you. They know that the only way to make you do something like that is if I tell you to do it. And there's no reason why I should tell you to, except, of course… something like this."

"All right. But what exactly am I supposed to do?"

The truth was that Angela wasn't sure yet, but she had a few ideas.

"We'll talk about the details later. For now, just tell me this: Will you do whatever it takes to make sure that Monty and Simon are safe?"

"Yes", Claire replied, as expected.

The first thing Angela did after ending the conversation with her granddaughter was to get in touch with the kidnappers – although it pained her to do so – asking them for further instructions. The instructions she received suited her purposes.

These people aren't exactly the smartest scum on earth, she thought with a humourless smile, it can't be anything more than luck that has kept them alive for this long.

***

Three women in a rental car through the backwoods; three lonely women, but hardly defenceless. At least the oldest and the youngest ones were capable of defending themselves if needed.

As for Heidi, Angela wasn't sure. She almost regretted that she called her ex-daughter-in-law back after talking to Claire and arranging all the details of their road trip.

"They are _my children_", Heidi said, "if you're going anywhere, I'm coming with you."

As Angela had to wait for Claire to arrive, she had no choice but to stay where she was, and it didn't take Heidi very long to drive to her. Although she hesitated, she decided to let Heidi come along.

When Claire heard that they were going to fly halfway across the country and then get into a rental car and drive for hours, she objected and asked why they couldn't just call Hiro Nakamura and be brought to their destination within seconds. Angela explained that the kidnappers had forbid them to call anyone, and although she wasn't a stranger to the idea that some rules are made to be broken, the kidnappers did hold the boy's lives in their dirty hands and she thought it wiser to waste a little time than to risk wasting their lives.

So all three of them were in the car, riding a bumpy road that looked like it could lead to the end of Nowhere, hours from a gas station, hours from even an inhibited cottage.

Heidi had insisted on being the driver when they started, then Angela took over, and now Claire was driving. Heidi had fallen asleep in the backseat, and Angela looked at her over her shoulder.

Poor, sweet Heidi, she thought. I wish she could have stayed closer to me. The Petrelli family should be together.

Angela couldn't suppress a bittersweet smile as she thought about a time when they all had been a little happier. No rest can last forever, she mused, and everything falls apart and starts to spin faster, and we are all caught up in the events.

"Are you sure that this is the right way?" Claire asked, her eyes fixed upon the winding road.

Angela nodded her head. She was sure. No only because she had been told how to drive, but she had seen that road in her dream.

"I still don't understand why we couldn't have sent someone ahead of us. Don't you know where they are?"

"I don't", Angela replied, "my dream was very clear on some points, but I don't know where they are."

"But the e-mails could have been tracked, and while we get this fire man, someone could have, even my dad…"

"It is true that Noah is very good at finding people", Angela interrupted, "but in this case, I'm afraid he can't help us. You see, one of these people can read minds – not nearly as well as Matt Parkman, but right now they are probably watching their backs, and they would know if someone who wasn't me or you tried to approach them."

Angela reached for a small bag under the seat, took it out and showed its content to Claire.

"A taser, huh? You think I'll need it?"

"I'm not sure", Angela replied, "but I want you to be prepared. And remember what I just said about the mind reading – just do as you're told and don't try to think of any smart tricks. For the boy's sake."

"But what exactly am I supposed to do?" Claire's hands squeezed the wheel. "I mean, I'm not afraid, I'd just like to know."

"Yes. I'm not sure yet, Claire."

Heidi, who had woken up in the backseat – or who had perhaps never been sleeping – commented:

"It looks like we're about to find out, don't you think?"

An old banger was blocking the road, making it clear that they had to stop.

All three of them got out of the car, and when they were standing in front of it, the old banger's doors opened and a short, bald man and a tall gray-haired woman stepped out of it.

Max and Ally, Angela thought, how I wished that I didn't have to see you ever again.

"Yes, we meet again, Angela Petrelli", Ally said with the coarse voice Angela recognized very well.

She looks old, Angela observed, torn and worn – but she was wearing what looked like expensive jewellery and exclusive designer clothes, in sharp contrast to the shabby old car.

"You", Heidi hissed, "you poor excuse of a woman! What have you done to my children? What do you want with them?!"

"Ask _her_ what I want with them", Ally spitefully replied. "An eye for an eye… that's fair, eh, Angela Petrelli?"

Heidi looked like she was about to explode and throw herself at the woman, and Claire put a restraining hand on her arm.

"Yay, cat fight!" Max grinned, "you try to scratch her eyes out, lady… and you'll see what happens to the brave and foolish ones!"

"That's enough", Angela said coldly, although her inner self was in hot turmoil when she saw the faces of these people for the first time in more or less thirty years. But she knew now as she had known then that she was the stronger one; she was the one who was on the right track, and she knew their weaknesses.

And as Max and Ally had found the children, they obviously had guessed well at what her weakness was, but she doubted that they knew their own ones well enough to be able to triumph over her.

"We are here", she said, "like you wanted. What is it that you want us to do?"

"We want her", Max said and pointed a thick finger at Claire, "to go to a house a mile from here. There lives a guy with a key in a chain around his neck. It's the key that we want."

"A key? All right – so I'm just going to get in there and make him give it to me?"

"Obviously", he said, "he's gonna put up a fight – but so what if he throws some fire, that won't be a problem for you, will it? Just get in there, I don't mind if you have to break his neck to get our key."

"Just as long as I can get my little brothers back to their mother", Claire said and let go of Heidi's arm. "Where is this guy with the key? Let's get started."

"Come with us, then, Blondie!" Angela's enemy from the past grabbed her granddaughter and tried to drag her to the car, but Claire could break free before she was thrown into the backseat of the car.

"Take your hands off me, I can walk for myself!"

"Oh, Angela", Heidi exclaimed, "is she going to be all right?"

"Yes", Angela said, "get in the car."

Angela was driving as they followed the kidnappers – who now had all her grandchildren – for a while through the darkness, not lit up by anything but the lights of the cars.

Then they saw a small wooden cottage with lights in the windows, a big barn that looked like it could collapse any minute – or if not, in the next storm that passed by – and a couple of only slightly less ramshackle outbuildings.

"How could anyone live here?" Heidi said. "I can't believe it – even if he's a psycho."

Angela didn't answer.

The shabby old car stopped, and Angela's rental car stopped behind it. They all got out, Claire still with the bag in her hand turned around to look at Angela and Heidi, but Max pushed her.

"Start walking and go get it!"

Claire started walking toward the house, and then the others followed on a distance.

"Don't get too close", Max warned with a low murmur.

"It's dark, he won't see us", Angela replied, "unless his eyesight has gotten any better during all these years, which I doubt. The opposite, I would think."

"As if you haven't aged a bit", Ally snapped, "but look at you; you're not so young anymore…"

"Shut up!" Max hissed.

They all stopped behind the corner of an outhouse building, while Claire walked on.

Angela grabbed Heidi's arm and pulled her away from the building, and then they stood there, hidden by the branches of a tree that almost touched the ground, and the darkness.

They watched Claire as she knocked on the door; the door opened and light flooded over a good part of the courtyard.

"Hi!" Claire said loudly in her best 'I'm-a-cheerful-cheerleader'-voice. "I'm sorry to disturb you like this, sir, but the thing is, I'm totally lost. I must have taken a wrong turn like hours ago. So I was wondering, um, do you maybe have a map that I could take a look at?"

So that's what Steve looks like these days, Angela thought. He had been a young man when she met him and tried to make him follow the Company's directives. His hair was white now.

The man with the desired key let Claire in, and they could see through the window that the two of them were talking. It looked like Claire was still acting; smiling and gesturing, and her target looked like he enjoyed this unexpected company of a pretty girl.

Then they stopped smiling; apparently, Claire had then decided to drop her cover.

"Come on", Max murmured, "where's the fire? Let us see some action!"

Steve raised a hand and showed it to Claire, but she didn't even flinch as his palm combusted. She even stepped closer.

Then he shot two flames from his hands and he made them surround her, but she didn't move that time either.

Come on, Claire, Angela thought, what are you doing? There's no need to play with fire; just use the taser and get out of there!

"She's got a taser?" Ally said and quickly turned her head toward Angela, "what about you, do you have one too?"

"No", Angela said, and quickly reminded herself to be careful with her thoughts.

"Why, what are you thinking about?"

Max hissed:

"Shut up, you two!"

Ally turned her attention to the cottage again, and Angela was only too happy to do the same. What on earth was Claire doing in there? Sure, it wasn't the first time the girl had to walk through fire, but it would be better if she could just finish the job quickly.

Through the window, they could see the furniture catching fire. Claire was looking angry, and so was the man she tried to argue with.

The room was quickly filled with fire, and Steve rushed toward Claire, grabbed her neck and tried to strangle her. Claire's mouth was forming words they couldn't hear, but probably, Angela thought, she said something like "You can't kill me".

Claire reached out her hand and tore apart her aggressor's checkered cotton shirt, and grabbed the gold chain that held the key around his neck. She snatched, and the key was in her hand.

The surprise made Steve let go of her, and by then the cottage was full of fire, and would soon be all in flames. Angela couldn't even see clearly what was going on in there.

Claire opened the window Angela and the others were watching her through and ran away toward her audience; they could hear Steve screaming, and a second later, the roof fell in, and the cottage was nothing but a huge bonfire.

"What were you doing in there", Angela shouted, "this fire is going to spread!"

"He started it", Max said, "he should fix it! Is he even going to get out of there alive? Hope he doesn't!"

"Sorry", Claire said and shrugged her shoulders, "I didn't mean… I just tried to reason with him first. I tried to explain to him that two little boys lives are at stake…"

"Ha!" Ally blurted out, "did you really think Steve would care about _that_?!"

"Who knows? I just thought he deserved the chance to do the right thing."

Angela looked at her granddaughter and shook her head in disbelief. Peter could have done that, too, she thought.

"Anyway, as I had the key, he went really crazy and said that he was going to kill every Petrelli there is in this world… And knowing what people like him are capable of, I shot him."

"This is crazy", Heidi exclaimed, "this is just crazy – but anyway, I called 911 when you were watching the show, so we better get out of here ASAP, right?"

"You did what?!" Ally screamed. "You crazy bitch, what did you do that for?"

"Like Angela said", Heidi impatiently explained, "this fire is going to spread. But I'm guessing it will take a while for the fire department to get here, so if we leave now…"

"All right", Max said quickly, "give me the key."

Greed was shining through his eyes with almost as much fire as they had behind them, and he reached out his hand and stepped toward Claire.

"Forget it!"

Claire reached for the taser in her bag.

"I keep the key until the boys are safe with Heidi in our car."

Ally and Max looked at each other, then at the burning cottage.

And then Max nodded his head, and started walking toward his car.

"But…" Ally said.

"No buts", Max decided, and with a hostile look at Claire, Ally followed her partner.

***

The house in the town one hour away from the burning cottage looked like any other small town house.

Max unlocked the door, and Heidi pushed him aside and rushed in.

"Monty! Simon! It's mommy – mommy's here, my darlings!"

She stopped, and looked around with hope mixed with desperation in her eyes.

"If you're waiting for them to come running", Ally said, "that won't happen."

"_Where are they? Where are my children?"_

Then they could hear the boys' crying voices, and Heidi located the sound to a heavy wooden door, and she tugged at the handle.

"All right, all right!"

Max pushed Heidi aside and wrenched the door lose and threw it carelessly away.

Angela wanted to kill both him and his partner with her bare hands when she saw her grandchildren in there in that small room without windows, without light, sitting on a bed with only a shabby green blanket. The boys were holding hands, their eyes were red and swollen. They had been locked away in that room, or wardrobe really, for hours.

Simon had only one shoe.

"Simon, Monty!" Heidi bust into tears, ran toward the boys and took them in her arms. "My darlings, I'm here now, we're going to take you away from here!"

The boys were clinging to her, crying too, as she carried them out of the terrible prison.

"It's over now", Angela promised, "it's going to be all right."

The boys were not looking at her, they had their faces pressed against their mother's shoulders. Angela kissed the top of their heads and stroke their backs.

"Stop it", Ally demanded, "give us the key before I puke and make you eat my vomits."

"Get out", Angela said, "and wait in the car."

Heidi didn't linger; with her precious burden she hurried out in the hallway, and Angela and Claire watched her until she was safe outside the door.

When Claire was distracted for a moment, Max pushed her and made her drop the taser, and Ally picked it up, and pointed it at Angela.

"The key", Max said, and Claire took the small thing out of her pocket and threw it to him.

Please, I don't want to die, Angela thought and made Ally laugh out loud.

Max eyes were shining.

"Look at it", he said to Ally, "look – finally; here it is. Imagine all the things we can do now – we just have to open that box. A lifetime of savings…"

"Yes", Ally replied, "and he tried to keep all of it from us, but that's something that son of a bitch isn't going to take with him in his grave – that is, if there's anything left of him to bury."

"We don't have to work ever again…"

"No, not unless we want to do it for fun…"

Both Ally and Max were completely absorbed in their reveries of what they would do now that they had the key to their fortune; they didn't have eyes nor ears for anything else than that.

Quietly but quickly, Angela reached for the small gun she kept in the inner pocket of her black quilted jacket; she aimed at Max and fired a shot into his head.

Ally had barely any chance to react to the sudden death of her partner, before she fell to the floor as well, her eyes staring empty at the ceiling and her mouth still smiling at her thoughts of the locked away money.

***

"I don't understand", Claire said many hours later when Heidi and the boys were safely asleep in Angela's home, and the two of them were alone in the yellow sitting room.

"You don't understand what, dear?" Angela said absentmindedly as she was thinking about how much she wished that the boys and their mother could stay there where she could protect them.

She knew that Heidi would want to leave the next morning; maybe they would share a few tender moments in remembrance of the past, but nothing more. And Angela would never ever beg her to stay.

"You told me not to think of any smart tricks, because the woman could hear my thoughts. But you managed to hide the fact that you had a weapon."

Claire brought Angela's thoughts away from Heidi and back to those unpleasant people who now were locked away in the wardrobe where they had put her grandsons.

"You know", she said, "if I hadn't shot them, they would most definitely have tried to kill us."

"I know. That's not what I asked."

"My dear Claire", Angela said, "it's very simple: Ally's ability to read minds had maybe grown a little over the year, but it was never very strong. First of all because she also had the ability to become invisible; two very useful abilities for someone like her, but they don't go very well together, so both were weak. I just didn't think about the gun; I thought about things like the boys, 'please don't let us die', about you, 'I wanna scratch your eyes out, you ugly old bitch', and such things. When you know how to do it, it's not that hard to hide things. And secondly, she was easily distracted. Didn't you see how she instantly turned away from me and looked at Max when he began to babble about the key and the money?"

Claire nodded her head.

"I was only afraid for Heidi and my brothers. I never doubted that you and I were going to get out of there."

"Exactly", Angela smiled, "and do you know why? Because they were weak. They cared more about the key and the money they were going to get their dirty hands on in the future than about us, their enemies in the present. Ally wanted revenge, but she wanted money more. They were greedy. They had always been greedy. I knew that, so I knew that they couldn't get away."

Again, Claire nodded her head.

"They tried to play a very dirty game with us, Claire… But we are nobody's toys."


End file.
